156 NOTES ON CHURCH AND BARONY OP LINTON 



but got no share of the royal bounty, since he voted non 

 liquet* He was minister of Linton and Yetholm, making 

 his abode, apparently, at the latter village. " He taught not 

 at the kirk of Linton because it was altogether ruinous,"f 

 hence, it is plain, the parishioners here can have derived little 

 benefit from his ministrations." After six years, evidently 

 under pressure from Lord Jedburgh, who then owned most 

 part of the parish, John Balfour " demitted the parsonage." 

 In 1618 he married, and that same year sat in the Perth 

 Assembly, which passed the famous Five Articles. 



EGBERT KER (1619-1658), presented by his namesake Sir 

 Robert Ker, probably of the Hirsel, first ap[)ear8 at Kelso on 

 2nd February 1619, bearing a letter from Archbishop Spottis- 

 wood to the Presbytery, desiring them to send| Mr Ker "to 

 Linton to teach." In 1621 he got into trouble for marrying 

 James Law, the Archbishop's son, to Margaret Haitlie, in 

 Smailholm Church, the ceremony having taken place without 

 any proclamation of banns. As the Archbishop had a double 

 interest in the affair, the Presbytery wrote to ask his advice, 

 and, in reply, the prelate sent a judicious letter, which buried 

 the matter. Inheritor of the traditions of an earlier and 

 laxer age, we find Robert Ker at the village hostelry, one 

 winter evening in 1650, drinking ale and playing cards 

 with " Q-eorge Ker, uncle to the laird of Linton." After an 

 incumbency of eight and thirty years, being now grown 

 "aged and infirm," it was proposed that he should have help 

 in his pastoral duties, but before the necessary steps could be 

 taken, early in 1658, a Linton elder came to the Presbytery 

 with the announcement — "It has pleased God to take from 

 us by death our laite minister, Mr Robert Ker." The name 

 of this elder was also Robert Ker. In proof of the changes 

 wrought by time, it is curious to note that while Scotts are 

 still plentiful as blackberries, the once powerful name of Ker 

 has almost completely vanished from among the peasantry on 

 the Middle Marches. At present there is only one householder 



* Calderwood, vii., 97. 

 t Presb. Reg. 

 I Preab. Reg. 



